Improvement in plant-fenders



P. BARBER. Plow-Fender.

Patented July 28, 1863.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PHILO BARBER, on LOSTANT,ILLI-NO1S.

IMPROVEMENT IN PLANT-FENDERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 39,333, dated July 28,1863.

nois, have invented a new and Improved Plant- Fender or Shield to beattached to cultivators or cultivator-plows; and I do hereby declarethat the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof,reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of thisspecification, in which- Figure 1 shows my improved fender applied to acommon cultivator or plow adapted for cultivating growing plants.elevation of Fig. 1. views of the improved fender, representing it indifferent conditions.

Similar letters of reference indicate correspondin g parts in theseveral figures.

This invention relates to an improvementin fender-guards,which are to beapplied to shovelplows or cultivators, as they are commonly called, forthe purpose of protecting the young plants from being covered up withearth, or injured by clods of earth falling on them in running theimplement between the rows of plants.

The nature of my invention consists in constructin g a fender or guardof wire formed into a frame-work and united by winding one wire uponanother, and connected to the plow-beam by means of twisted wire rods,the whole being arranged as will be hereinafter described.

It also consists in a fender made up of flexible rods and furnished withtransverse adjustable bars for the purpose of increasing or diminishingits width, according to the amount of earth thrown up by the shovels, orthe size and strength of the growing plants and their capability toresist the earth, all as will be hereinafter described.

- fender, attached at its forward end to the beam A and at its rear endto the standard of the forward shovel, B. The fender consists of fiveFig. 2 is a front Figs. 3, 4, 5 are enlarged or more longitudinal wirerods, a a a a 0?,

two curved supporting-rods, (J O, transverse rodsb b I) b, and adiagonal rod, 0, all of which are made of large wire manipulated intothe form hereinafter described, and attached together by means oflooping and twisting, as follows: The wire rod a a is doubled and itstwo ends twisted together, wit-h one end of the central rod, a formingthe supporting-rod O,

and also an open frame, to which the rod a a is attached. This rod a aisdoubled, it being,

like rod a a, in one piece, and looped on the rod a? at e, and its ends,together with the central rod, a are passed through the loops fff, whichare formed on the doubled rod (t a, as shown in Figs. 1, 3, 4:, and 5 ofthe drawings, and these ends are twisted together in a similar manner tothe ends of rods a a a, forming the supporting-redo. The rods a a a a aare now spread out and made to form a grating or skeleton of a fender,which, being made of wire, is very strong, and at the same timepossesses sufficient stifiness to resist the pressure of the earthagainst it. To these longitudinal rods a a a a (0 I apply a number oftransverse rods, b b b, by looping these rods around the longitudinalrods,as clearly shown in the drawings, which loops keep the longitudinalrods at an equal distance apart when disposed in the posit-ion shown inFigs. 1, 3, and 4, and serve as stifteners for these rods, and also aseyes, to allow their respective long and short rods to slide on thelongitudinal rods and to be adjusted in any desired position. Besidesthese transverse brace-rods b b, I employ a diagonal rod, 0, which islooped around each one of the longitudinal rods in a similar manner tothe shorter rods 12. The loops on this diagonal rod 0 are arranged atgreater distances apart than the loops on the shorter rods b, so thatwhen these short rods b are moved back to the ends of the longitudinalrods, as shown in Fig. 5, the rod 0 may be placed in a transverseposition in the center of the fender and made to spread out the rods a aa a, and thus to widen the fender. Another object in using thetransverse rods b and the spreading-rod c is to form a kind of sieve forpulverizing and sifting fine earth upon the young plants, which may betoo tender to resist the lieav'yand coarser earth and clods. The fenderwhich I have above described not only prevents the earth turned up oneach side of the rows of plants by the shovels from covering up theplants, but it actually performs the office of a sieve, allowing onlythe fine soil to escape through its meshes to the plants. These meshescan be increased in size as the plants become stronger by arranging thesliding rods 1) b as I have shown in Figs. 1, 3, and 4, and, finally,when the crop is very strong the rods 1) b may be pushed aside and thefender spread to its utmost by means of the rod 0, as shown in Fig. 5.

To prevent the spreading-rod 0 from slipping out of its place whenarranged as shown in Fig. 5, the rods a a can be bent, as shown at t '1;in red lines, Fig. 3, so that when the looped ends of the rod 0 areslipped into these crooks it will be securely held in its place.

The advantages of the fender above described are that it is superior toothers as a disiutegrator, as well as a protector or guard. It is soconstructed that it can be adjusted at all times to admit through itjust as much fine earth as is desired or as the crop will support, andalso fending off the clods and larger particles of earth which mightinjure the tender shoots, hence its construction of compact metal wires,which do not present a plain or flat surface to hinder the passage offine earth through it, as a fender made of a sheet or plate of metalwould do.

In the general construction of my improved wire fender it will be seenthat I use neither bolt, nail, nor rivet, the whole thing being puttogether by looping and twisting the wires, and thus attaching themtogether. My fender can therefore be manufactured at a very triflingcost and by a common workman.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-- 1. A fenderguard consisting oflongitudinal rods and sliding transverse rods, put together in such amanner as to form a sieve, the meshes of which are capable of beingextended or contracted, substantially as and for the purposes hereindescribed. 7

2. In combination with a flexible fender constructed substantially asdescribed, the extension-rod c, or its its equivalent, substantially asdescribed. I

3. A fender or plant-shield constructed of longitudinal and transversewire rods looped together and twisted, so as to constitute an open sievelike frame, substantially as described, whether the meshes of the fenderare variable or invariable in size.

PHILO BARBER.

Witnesses:

W; M. WATSON, G. COPELAND, Jr.

